Best 20s

Saint Cloud is a 2020 album by Waxahatchee, the recording project led by American singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield. Moving away from the denser electric sound of earlier Waxahatchee records, it draws heavily on country, folk rock, and Americana, with arrangements built around guitars, keyboards,...

songs is a 2020 solo album by Adrianne Lenker, the singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter of the band Big Thief. Lenker recorded it on analog equipment in a cabin in western Massachusetts during the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside the companion instrumental release instrumentals. The album centers...

Mestarin kynsi is the fifth full-length studio album by the Finnish psychedelic black metal band Oranssi Pazuzu. Released in 2020 through Nuclear Blast Records, the album significantly expanded the group's international distribution compared to their earlier independent releases. The record distingu...

Rat Saw God is a 2023 studio album by Wednesday, an indie rock band formed in Asheville, North Carolina, and fronted by songwriter Karly Hartzman. Its songs combine dense, distorted guitars associated with shoegaze and noise rock with elements of country and Americana, while Hartzman's lyrics depict...

Manning Fireworks is a 2024 studio album by American singer, songwriter, and guitarist MJ Lenderman, released by ANTI Records. Lenderman, also known for his work with the Asheville based band Wednesday, combines indie rock, country rock, and loosely textured guitar music with songs about disappointm...

Tigers Blood is a 2024 studio album by Waxahatchee, the recording project led by American songwriter Katie Crutchfield. Produced by Brad Cook, it continues the country and Americana direction of Saint Cloud while retaining the concise melodies and personal writing associated with Crutchfield's indie...

The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We is Mitski's seventh studio album, released in 2023. Its arrangements combine acoustic guitar, piano, orchestral strings, choir, and elements associated with folk and country music, giving it a more spacious sound than much of her earlier work. The album include...

I Got Heaven is the fourth studio album by Philadelphia rock band Mannequin Pussy, released in 2024. It combines abrasive punk passages with melodic indie rock, quieter textures, and direct vocal hooks, extending the range heard on the band's earlier records. The album centers Marisa Dabice's contra...

And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is a 2022 studio album by Weyes Blood, the recording name of American singer and songwriter Natalie Mering. It is the second installment in a planned album trilogy that began with Titanic Rising and combines orchestral pop, folk, and soft-rock arrangements with lyri...

Home Video is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus, released in 2021. Its indie rock songs revisit Dacus's adolescence in Richmond, Virginia, addressing friendship, religion, sexuality, and coming of age through autobiographical storytelling. Dacus, who is also a member of...

God Save the Animals is a 2022 studio album by American songwriter and musician Alex G, whose full name is Alexander Giannascoli. Released by Domino Recording Company, it combines indie rock and folk-oriented songwriting with electronic processing, altered vocals, and country-influenced elements. It...

This Stupid World is the sixteenth studio album by Yo La Tengo, released in 2023. The Hoboken, New Jersey trio of Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew largely recorded and produced the album themselves, retaining the direct interplay of a working band. Its songs move between melodic indie roc...

ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH is a 2021 album by Spirit of the Beehive, an experimental rock band formed in Philadelphia. Released by Saddle Creek Records, it combines indie rock, electronic processing, noise, abrupt edits, and found or sampled sounds within fragmented compositions. The record is suited to l...

I Don't Live Here Anymore is the fifth studio album by the War on Drugs, released in 2021. Produced by bandleader Adam Granduciel and Shawn Everett, it develops the group's layered guitar, synthesizer, and studio-based approach while retaining rhythms and melodies associated with heartland rock. The...

Live Forever is the 2020 debut studio album by Bartees Strange, an English-born American musician raised in Oklahoma and later based in the Washington, D.C. area. The record moves among indie rock, post-punk, emo, hip-hop, electronic production, and R&B rather than adhering to a single genre. Its sh...

Dogma is the 2023 debut full-length album by New York band Model/Actriz, released by True Panther Records. It combines post-punk, noise rock, industrial textures, and dance-oriented rhythms, with Cole Haden's vocals set against abrasive guitars and insistent percussion. The album reflects the physic...

Every Bad is a 2020 studio album by Porridge Radio, an indie rock band formed in Brighton and led by singer and songwriter Dana Margolin. It was the band's second full-length album, following Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers, and features emotionally direct lyrics, repeated phrases, distorted guitars a...

The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds is a rock album released in 2023. It represents the band's return to creating new music after almost twenty years. Featuring original compositions recorded during lockdown, the album showcases the group’s continued musical prowess and enduring appeal. Fans of cla...

Little Oblivions is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Julien Baker, released in 2021 through Matador Records. Unlike the sparse guitar-and-piano settings associated with much of her earlier solo work, the album uses fuller rock arrangements featuring drums, bass, keyboards, banjo,...

Lucifer on the Sofa is the tenth studio album by the American rock band Spoon, released in 2022. Developed after frontman Britt Daniel returned to Austin, Texas, it emphasizes full-band performances, prominent electric guitars, and a more direct rock sound than the electronic textures heard on some...

I Know I'm Funny haha is a 2021 studio album by Atlanta singer-songwriter Faye Webster, released by Secretly Canadian. Its understated arrangements combine indie pop, country, folk, soft rock, and rhythm and blues, frequently using pedal steel guitar, restrained percussion, and Webster's conversatio...

Ants From Up There is the second studio album by the English band Black Country, New Road, released in 2022. Its arrangements combine post-rock, chamber pop, indie rock, and klezmer-influenced elements, using strings, saxophone, piano, guitars, and gradual ensemble crescendos. The record includes Ch...

Any Shape You Take is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Indigo De Souza, released in 2021 by Saddle Creek Records. The album combines indie rock with electronic textures, forceful guitar passages, and quieter arrangements while addressing intimacy, change, grief, and emotional de...

Twin Plagues is the third studio album by Wednesday, an indie rock band from Asheville, North Carolina, released in 2021. Its guitar-heavy songs combine indie rock and shoegaze distortion with elements associated with country and Southern rock, while Karly Hartzman's lyrics focus on specific people,...

"Punisher" is the second studio album by American indie rock singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers, released in 2020. The album features a subdued indie folk sound characterized by layered vocals, atmospheric production, and introspective lyrics. Produced by Tony Berg and Bridgers, the record explores t...

Invincible Shield is the nineteenth studio album by the English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released in March 2024. It is the band's second studio album to feature guitarist Richie Faulkner, who joined in 2011, and their first since 2018's Firepower. The record delivers a traditional heavy metal...

Hannah Read's breakthrough album from East Texas featuring intimate lo-fi indie folk marked by plainspoken emotional directness and minimal arrangements.

Caroline is the self-titled debut studio album by the London eight-piece caroline, released by Rough Trade Records in 2022. Its patient, ensemble-based compositions combine elements of post-rock, folk, ambient music, and experimental indie rock, often building through repetition, silence, and gradua...

Cartwheel is a studio album by Hotline TNT, an American shoegaze and indie rock project led by songwriter and guitarist Will Anderson. Third Man Records released it in 2023, following the project's earlier album Nineteen in Love. Its songs place direct pop melodies and understated vocals inside dens...